No-Limit Single Table Sit n Go Texas Holdem Poker Strategy

Considering these tournaments have nine to ten players you can begin to narrow down your competition rather quickly. It is very likely that five of the players at your table will be average at best and have very little chance to win the poker online tournament. Obviously you need to identify the “Card Players” from those that “Play Cards” accordingly. Once your have profiled these individuals you can play back at them accordingly.

Since the levels tend to be eight to ten minutes each you still have plenty of time in relation to your blinds and chip stack before you have to get involved. Use it wisely. I prefer to play a tight-aggressive style during the first few levels and let others do the dirty work unless I have a premium hand.

Early Hand Selection

There is no reason to get cute in this type of tournament. You need to stick with a fairly straight forward approach in regards to which hands you play in the first three levels or so.

I prefer to play the following hands:

1. [A][A]
2. [K][K]
3. [Q][Q]
4. [J][J]
5. [T][T]
6. [A][K]

In Position

Small Pocket pairs on the button or in the blinds.

The reason for playing so tight early on is that it is very likely you will encounter players that will push all-in with any pocket pair. It is simply the nature of play in single table online tournaments that are low buy-ins. Remember online poker tournaments tend to have over exaggerated play. Sit n Go tournaments are no different.

It is not uncommon to see people push their chips in with AK very first hand of the poker tournament. Although I don’t recommend this play, as it puts you in a coin flip situation when you don’t need to be, it is a frequent move that either nets the blinds, wins a big pot, or gets you sent to the rail unnecessarily. You can do better than that. Besides, if someone wakes up with [A][A] or [K][K] you just pushed your way to the rail for no good reason. You leave yourself no other options when you push your chips in the middle so when you do make sure you are doing it for the right reasons.

Short Handed Play

By the time the blinds are up to $100/$50 it is likely you will be facing 6 or fewer opponents. This is when you open up your game and your hand selection. Now that you have a good idea of who’s who at your table you can begin to steal blinds as they are now worth stealing at this point. You can also play your [K][Q], [A][T] and similar hands more aggressively. Ideally you want to have doubled your chip count by this stage of the tournament at the very least.

If you haven’t then now is the time to start pushing all-in with [A][K], [A][Q], [A][J], [A][T], and [K][Q] and pocket pairs of [8][8] or better. The bottom line is that you need chips. This will also redefine your image from your previous conservative play. This will result in the blinds being folded to you when no one has a significant hand and that’s a good result for you. Once you have double up you can always throttle back down again.

The Final Four

At this stage of the tournament plays like any other final table sans the levels are a bit shorter. At this point you play to your stack size. Typically, single table Sit n Go poker tournaments only pay out the top 3 players. So playing to just “make the money” has absolutely no appeal. You need to play to win the tournament! If your short stacked then you need to gamble with hands like [J][T], [A][X], [K][X] and small pairs.

Getting blinded off is NOT AN OPTION! If you have accumulated a nice chips stack and are in first or second place then give the blinds a stab and see how they react to you. Pick on the short stack and steal their blinds as often as possible. Be prepared to call the all-in re-raise should the situation call for it. Keep your eyes on the prize.

The more chips you have when your heads-up the more options you have as to how and which strategy you can employ. Chips mean power and you need as many as you can get your hands on. Stay aggressive and be smart. If another big stack plays back hard at you then look for a better spot. Otherwise, keep pounding the blinds.

Summary

Play hard and be smart. If you can do those two things along with executing fundamental poker strategy you will do just fine.
Good luck at the tables!